Ao: The Last Hunter

Set around 30,000 years BP, the film unfolds during a fragile moment when Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons share vast stretches of the Eurasian landscape, their paths crossing and colliding as they seek food, safety, and a place to call home.

Two Neanderthals, Ao, [Simon Paul Sutton], and Boorh, [Craig Morris], hunt and bring provisions to their clan in the icy reaches of Northern Siberia. As Ao’s wife gives birth to Néā, a newborn daughter, the camp settles into a tenuous routine of survival. A polar bear attacks their cave, and Ao sets out to avenge a fallen guardian, successfully fending off the predator but losing Boorh in the clash. When the hunters return, they discover a massacre: their clan has been wiped out by anatomically modern humans who have newly appeared on the landscape. The grief is crushing, and Ao is forced to confront a world where his kin are gone and the threat of these newcomers remains.

As Ao mourns, a band of Cro-Magnon hunters confronts him. He fights but chooses mercy, sparing their lives and letting them escape. In the wake of the tragedy, Ao’s loneliness grows, and he discovers solace in music, playing his bone flute and recalling a childhood spent along the ocean in Southern Iberia. With his clan erased, Ao makes a decisive choice: he will leave the cold tundra of Siberia and travel south to reunite with his twin brother Oā, who was born far away. The journey becomes a meditation on memory and longing, and Ao’s visions reveal his twin drumming on a log—a symbol of a shared past and a fragile hope for connection.

On the move through Northern Europe, Ao slips into a dug pit camouflaged by leaves while pursuing a boar. A hunting party of Cro-Magnons helps him out, but Unāk, [Vesela Kazakova], a domineering leader among the tribe, captures Ao and holds him in a camp where he is surrounded by the bodies of past sacrifices. Among the captives is a pregnant Homo sapiens woman named Āki, [Aruna Shields], and her husband Āka, [Yavor Veselinov], who were stolen from their homeland. Their presence adds a human stake to the clash of cultures, and Ao’s fate becomes intertwined with theirs in unexpected ways. The tribe’s harsh rituals complicate any chance of harmony, and the moment is sharpened when Aka is executed (or sacrificed) by the headman Agūk, [Helmi Dridi], with Aki watching in stunned disbelief.

Desperate to escape, Ao crafts a plan with a wasp’s nest, using the distraction to break free. He muds himself and breaks away, creating a chaotic diversion that allows him to flee. Aki, who has followed him secretly, tracks his trail until he falls asleep in a dark cave. Ao wakes to the sound of Aki’s cries; she is giving birth to a daughter, Wāma. Witnessing the birth, Ao believes the infant is Néa, the deceased girl from his own clan, reincarnated. The two begin a wary coexistence, bound by a shared vigilance but hampered by a language barrier and mutual suspicion. Aki fears losing her newborn, and Ao struggles to reconcile his longing for Néa with his growing attachment to this new family.

Night brings uncertainty as Ao attempts to protect Wāma; Aki, anxious about losing her child, confronts Ao. The couple’s fragile truce unravels into a tense standoff, as Agūk’s warriors close in. Ao fights to defend the infant and the shelter they have found, while Aki—keenly aware of their precarious position—battles Unāk and fights to hold onto Wāma. Ao then steps in to shield Aki and Wāma, delivering a decisive victory against the attackers. Yet the victory is tempered by the fact that their small party is still a target, and the path ahead remains perilous.

The pair press onward toward Ao’s homeland, realizing that Wāma needs her mother to survive. Ao allows Aki to feed the baby, but he keeps the infant close, pushing Aki ahead to keep tabs on her. Ao grows very ill on the journey, coughing violently in a swampy stretch. In a moment of peril, Aki retrieves Wāma from Ao’s arms, but Ao clings to the child and insists she be fed. In a moment of mercy, Aki decides not to abandon the stranger to die and carries him to an abandoned campsite where she nurses him back to health. There, she finds a spear-thrower and other provisions that will help them survive the road ahead. After his recovery, Ao gains a new respect for Aki and begins to understand her, though the two still struggle to bridge the centuries of difference between their worlds.

Together they discover a dramatic cave with walls adorned by ancient drawings. Ao has never seen cave art before and misreads a painting as a living creature, but Aki gently corrects him. She teaches him to make handprints—spitting pigment onto his hand and pressing it against the wall—an act that becomes a shared symbol of their growing bond. Over time, Ao and Aki learn to communicate more clearly, and their bond deepens as they practice new skills, including how to use the spear thrower, and they share moments of tenderness as they care for Wāma, whom Ao still calls Néa.

Continuing their trek across Central Europe, they arrive at a vast cavern filled with mammoth skeletons repurposed as homes for another Cro-Magnon tribe. The camp is eerie and unsettling: Neanderthal skulls line the walls, a stark reminder of the tribe’s history. Ao explores the camp, while Aki bathes in a shallow pool, and the sight awakens Ao’s desire to mate. He is rebuffed by the tribe’s leader, but a fractured moment of vulnerability marks the turning point: an older Neanderthal man among the group, clearly isolated and seeking companionship, is unable to integrate. The tribe rejects Ao, and Aki’s trust wavers when she perceives Ao’s advances toward her; she lashes out with Ao’s polar bear wrap and insists that Wāma belongs to her. Ao’s remorse is immediate, and he exits the cavern in shame, accompanied by the old man who is also shunned by the tribe. The old man hands Ao a skull and laughs maniacally as he slips away, while Ao, heartbroken, returns to the cave and plays his bone flute, the vision of Oā echoing in his memory.

Aki’s anger lingers, and she lashes out, beating Ao with his own wrap as she demands that Wāma remain with her. The moment is painful and exposes the fragility of their bond, but in the morning, Aki observes that the younger members and the old man have begun reenacting the previous day’s events, and a renewed rift opens between them. Yet love and longing persist, and Aki chases after Ao, a testament to the complexity of their choice to stay together. Ao, in turn, tests his resolve, and when Aki returns with Wāma, she forgives him enough to keep moving forward. They reconcile and continue their journey toward Ao’s homeland.

Their trek continues across a harsh desert toward Ao’s birthplace in Southern Iberia. The heat and dehydration threaten to end their quest, and Aki’s milk production for Wāma is compromised. In a moment of desperate resourcefulness, Ao discovers a mare with a nursing colt and uses the animals to nurse Wāma and sustain the pair. After sharing the mare’s milk, a rainstorm breaks and the tension between them softens; amidst the storm, Ao and Aki finally consummate their bond in the rain, marking them as a mated pair.

In Southern Europe, Ao discovers the harsh truth: his twin brother Oā and their entire clan have fallen to illness that attacked their cave. Ao’s grief is profound; the weight of being the last of his people presses down on him, and he nearly contemplates ending his life by leaping from a cliff. Aki, steadfast and compassionate, reaches out and reminds him that Néa—now a symbol of their shared history—needs him. A gust of wind unexpectedly pushes Ao back from the edge, and he clings to the lip, saved by sheer chance. He rushes to Aki and Wāma, and the couple shares a long, emotional embrace, reaffirming their commitment to each other and to the family they have begun to build.

Four years pass, and the family—ostracized by other tribes—arrives in Southern Iberia to settle near the last known signs of Neanderthal life. Ao carries their four-year-old daughter Néa on his shoulders as they walk toward a rocky beach, with Aki strolling behind them, visibly pregnant with their next child. The scene closes on a quiet, intimate note: Ao, Néa, and Aki listen to the heartbeat of the unborn child, existing together in a fragile but hopeful bid for a future where both lineages can endure.

The film paints a patient, human portrait of a world in flux, where memory, loss, and the stubborn will to protect one’s family collide with the hard realities of survival. It is a story about what it means to carry the legacy of a lineage that has nearly vanished, and about how love and resilience can help two people—seemingly different in every way—find a way to create a life that might endure beyond their time.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 16:58